It took 2,000 years for God to send Jesus since He found Abraham, so is a similar timeframe needed for Jesus to return?

Question

Sun Myung Moon · Accepted Answer

Students of biblical history notice a striking pattern: approximately 2,000 years passed from Abraham to Jesus. It is natural to ask whether another 2,000 years must pass from Jesus until His return — and remarkably, we now stand almost exactly at that threshold. Understanding what these time periods actually mean in God's providence reveals why the timing of the Second Coming is neither arbitrary nor rigidly fixed, yet is profoundly significant. The Biblical Foundation Scripture shows that God works through significant providential time periods. From Abraham to the Exodus was about 400 years, as God foretold (Genesis 15:13); from the Exodus to the Temple, another 400 years; and the pattern of 400-year periods of preparation runs throughout biblical history. Multiplied by the broader dispensations, roughly 2,000 years elapsed from Abraham to Jesus. Paul calls the arrival of Jesus the climax of these preparations: "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son" (Galatians 4:4). Yet the Bible also teaches that the timing of the Second Coming depends in part on human response. Jesus said, "Of that day and hour knoweth no man" (Matthew 24:36), and Peter explains that God is "not slack concerning his promise... but is longsuffering to us-ward" (2 Peter 3:9). Prophetic time periods can be prolonged or shortened according to whether humanity fulfills its portion of responsibility — as Nineveh's reprieve and Israel's forty extra wilderness years both demonstrate. The Divine Principle Perspective: Providential Time-Identity The Divine Principle reveals that the parallel between these two 2,000-year periods is not coincidence but is the principle of providential time-identity. When a central figure in God's providence fails, the providence must be prolonged through later periods that repeat, in parallel form, the conditions of the earlier period, until the necessary indemnity conditions are fulfilled. The Apostle Paul spoke of this ongoing process, stating, "For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now" (Romans 8:22). The 2,000 years from Abraham to Jesus were the period of preparation for the First Coming — restoring the foundation of faith and foundation of substance on the national and world levels, so that Israel could receive the Messiah. Because Jesus was rejected and crucified, that providence was not completed; it had to be prolonged. The subsequent 2,000 years of Christian history, from Jesus to today, constitute a parallel period of preparation for the Second Coming. Just as Judaism was the chosen people of the first course, Christianity became the second chosen people, carrying the providence on the worldwide level. Striking parallels confirm this pattern: both periods began with the chosen people losing their sovereignty (Israel under foreign empires; the early church persecuted under Rome); both passed through approximately 400-year sub-periods of preparation (the judges, the united monarchy, the divided kingdoms, and the Babylonian exile and return, paralleled by the patriarchal church, the Christian empire, the divided kingdoms of Christian Europe, and the Reformation); and both culminate in the coming of the Messiah. This time-identity is why the twentieth century — exactly 2,000 years after Jesus — saw the First and Second World Wars, the final global separation of good and evil, and the birth of the conditions for the Messiah's reception. As it is written, "Therefore, when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)" (Matthew 24:15). The Time Has Come Therefore, the Second Coming is not awaiting some distant future date but belongs to this era — the conclusion of the parallel 2,000-year period. The explosion of knowledge, the unification of the world into "one global village," the collapse of barriers between cultures, and the simultaneous spiritual hunger and moral crisis of our age all indicate that the fulness of time has again arrived. What remains decisive is human response: will this generation recognize and receive the Messiah, or repeat the mistake of the generation that crucified Jesus? Living the Principle Live with the urgency of the times: the parallel providential periods have concluded, and we stand in the era of the Second Coming. Do not be passive, assuming events will simply unfold; the timing of God's providence depends on human responsibility — including yours. Prepare like the wise virgins with oil in their lamps (Matthew 25:1-13): deepen your understanding of God's word, purify your heart, build a family of true love, and develop the spiritual senses to recognize the Messiah's work in this generation. For "be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not" (Luke 12:40).

It took 2,000 years for God to send Jesus since He found Abraham, so is a similar timeframe needed for Jesus to return?

The Biblical Foundation

The Divine Principle Perspective: Providential Time-Identity

The Time Has Come

Living the Principle

Sources and further reading